Attendance Needed at NY DEC Online Meeting Aug 27th!

Dear New York Pollinator Pathway,

 

You may remember the landmark law passed by New York in 2023, the Birds & Bees Protection Act (BBPA), which restricts the use of pollinator-killing neonicotinoids beginning next year. The update we have from our partners at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is that the regulatory process for implementing the law is kicking off at the end of this month and your input is needed.

 

Unfortunately, whether the BBPA will fulfill its promise of truly eliminating the needless neonic use polluting New York’s water, decimating its wildlife, and threatening New Yorkers’ health, will depend largely on the strength of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) implementing regulations.

 

DEC just announced that the first step in that public process will be a virtual stakeholder meeting at 9:30am on Thursday, August 27. Instructions on how to sign up, along with some general talking points are below. We encourage everyone who is interested to attend and make your voice heard!

 

For those who can’t attend, but still want to get involved, don’t worry. There will be many more steps in the regulatory process, including a proposed rule from DEC, for which we’ll want to generate as many public comments as possible.

Event Information

Date: Thursday, August 27, 2026

Time: 9:30am – 1:00pm ET

Location: Virtual

Register Here

Registration: Registration is free and required. If you would like to speak, you may indicate that on the registration form.

 

Attending: Once you have registered, you should receive an email with the Webex link that you can click to join on Thursday, Aug. 27. You may want to join early if you have not used Webex before to troubleshoot any tech issues. If you do not receive a link within 24 hours of registering, you should consider reaching out to DEC ([email protected] or 518-402-8748).

 

Speaking: Speaking at the meeting is not required, but if you choose to sign up to speak you will likely have 1-3 minutes. You should consider distilling your talking points in advance and practicing using a timer.

 

Topline Message

The Birds and Bees Protection Act (BBPA) is the country’s leading law addressing likely the most ecologically destructive pesticides since DDT—neurotoxic neonicotinoids or “neonics”—which also pollute New York water and threaten New Yorkers’ health.

 

The law is strong and surgical: designed to eliminate 80-90% of the neonics entering the state’s environment every year by prohibiting only needless uses that don’t provide economic benefits or are easily replaced with safer, effective alternatives. Ensuring the law is successfully implemented—such as in Quebec, where a similar model eliminated the vast majority of neonic pollution without crop loss or switching to more harmful pesticides—depends on details of this regulatory process.

 

As a national leader on this issue, and to protect New Yorkers and their environment, DEC must promulgate strong regulations to ensure they stay true to the law’s intention to eliminate wasteful and dangerous neonic pollution.

 

Summary of Regulatory Asks

The BBPA is a strong law that seeks to eliminate the needless neonic use polluting New York’s environment and people—specifically, most non-agricultural lawn and garden uses, and neonic coatings on corn, soybean, and wheat seeds known as “seed treatments.”

 

We want DEC’s regulations to do the following:

 

• For neonic lawn and garden uses: Ensure that nearly all non-agricultural turf and ornamental neonic use is prohibited—with limited exceptions for use needed to protect woody plants or to address an environmental emergency.

 

• For neonic-coated corn, soybean, and wheat seeds: Ensure the use of neonic seed treatments is limited to only those situations where a neonic treatment would be effective in addressing a verified and economically significant pest risk.

 

General Neonic Talking Points

Fact Sheets

• See this general fact sheet on neonic harms generally.

• See this health fact sheet on neonics’ threats to our health.

 

Neonics’ Harms

• Neonic (KNEE-oh-nicks) widely contaminate New York’s environment—including soils, surface water, groundwater, and wildlife.

• Neonics are neurotoxic and commonly found in our bodies, including in the bodies of 95% of pregnant women in nationwide testing. Neonics are linked with increased risk of birth defects of the heart and brain, cognitive impairment, hormonal changes, negative pregnancy outcomes, and many other neurological, hormonal, reproductive harms in people.

• Neonic contamination is a leading cause of declines in pollinators, like bees and butterflies, which help support our food systems and ecosystems. New York beekeepers lost about 40 percent of their colonies in 2025-26. New York farmers rely on pollinators to grow healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables.

• Neonic contamination of surface waters wipes out invertebrates that fish, birds, and all sorts of other wildlife depend on for food. The neonic imidacloprid is also the most commonly detected insecticide in Long Island’s aquifer.

• Neonics can also degrade soil health, making land less productive.

 

Most Neonic Use in New York Is Unnecessary

• Neonics are typically used preventatively, regardless of whether a pest problem is present. For this reason, most use is unnecessary.

• Neonic seed treatments are likely used on over 1 million acres of New York corn, soybean, and wheat fields each year, making them the top source of contamination.

• Research consistently shows that these seed treatments do not economically benefit the farmers that use them—including recent extensive testing by Cornell University.

• Non-agricultural lawn and garden neonic uses can heavily contaminate urban and suburban areas, but are similarly provide no benefit to homeowners or are easily replaced with safer alternatives.

• These two categories of uses make up 80-90% of the neonics entering New York’s environment every year.

• Protecting New Yorkers and their environment from harmful and needless pollution is exactly what the legislature intended in passing the Bird and Bees Protection Act. DEC must promulgate strong regulations to make sure that happens in practice.

• Experience from just over the border shows it can be done. Quebec implemented similar restrictions in 2019, and since then, neonic seed coating use has fallen to almost nothing without documented crop losses or switching to more harmful alternatives.